“Yeah, but none of the others have tentacles.”
“We’re all different.I’ve got a bloodline similar to Brother Al’s, though it diverges at some point.We have malleable flesh.Whatever our sense of self is, it’s the easiest way for our flesh to feel.When I am… sexually forward, I feel as if I let forth a ravening beast from my heart.It’s a difficult thing to keep in check.It makes my choice of sexual partners rather limited.”
“So when I was joking about the tentacles?—”
“I thought I’d hit the jackpot,” he said.
“Oh,” I said.“Ohhhh.”
We laid together for some time.
“Would you want to try, some time?”I asked.
“Let’s just lay together right now,” he said.“If we escape from this.We can talk.But for now.Let’s just enjoy the feeling of our flesh together.”
We felt each other breathe, and I found myself falling quickly to sleep.
Chapter2
We were awoken by Brynholf leering through the meal slot.
“Get up!”he snarled.“Court is soon in session!”
He came in and stared at my nudity.I tried not to let him look, tried not to be perturbed by the way he grinned.Nagisa got up and stretched.Brynholf looked disturbed by this on some fundamental level.To be completely honest… Nagisa was more than impressively endowed.It would have made anyone with any sense more than a little uncomfortable.
“Let’s go,” Brynholf groused.“Let me know when you’re dressed.Savages.”
Silver manacles wentaround our wrists again.We were walked up, up countless stairs, all the way into the atrium and main Sanctum Sanctorum of Hartshome.We were sat on a set of pews in the front near the main worship altar.Almost sacrilegiously, Judge Volkheim had sat himself and his judging supplies, including that godforsaken gavel and a stack of paper and vellum out on the main altar.Nagisa was sweating.There were some congregation members in the crowd behind us.Nagisa leaned over and whispered into my ear: “They’re not happy about the Transubstantiation Table being treated like just a table.”
“Order!”Judge Volkheim demanded, slamming his gavel.“Prosecution.Defense.Are you prepared to begin?”
“We are fully prepared, your honor,” Brynholf said.
“Give us two seconds,” Abe said.He sucked on a straw inside an aluminum wrapped blood pack like it was a Caprisun.There was a draining, gurgling noise as it hit the bottom.“I ran late from lunch.”
Nagisa and I looked at one another.
“Just follow my lead and don’t talk unless I tell you to,” Abe hissed, around the straw.He winked with one eye.I didn’t have the best feeling about this…
“On with it already!”Judge Volkheim said.“What are the charges levied against these two?”
“We went over them in brief earlier,” Brynholf said.“But in short.Heresy.Violation of the 3P Bylaws.Aiding and abetting a criminal.Misuse of unlicensed magic.Unauthorized blood transfer.”
“How do the defendants plead?”
“Not guilty on all counts,” Abe said.“Or in some cases, guilty with pertinent reasons for violation.”
“Hey!”I said.
“I know what I’m doing,” Abe hissed.
“Fine,” Judge Volkheim said.“Prosecutor Brynholf.Please begin with your opening statements.”
Brynholf rose to his feet, smoothing his blonde mane back against his head as he rose.He had dark circles under his eyes, and his fangs were whittled, almost like a wolf’s.His green eyes gleamed like a beast’s as he paced the courtroom floor.
“Very well,” Brynholf said.“We are here today because of a flagrant violation of our founding principles of law.We have as many names for our community as we do races that inhabit it.The Dark.The Underground—the Paranormal Community—Whatever you call us, all of us are beholden to be civilized, law-abiding individuals who are held accountable for our actions.To that end, we have codified and coalesced an exhaustive list of actions and actionable behaviors that we must cooperate with in order to not draw undue attention to ourselves, per our unanimous treaty with the United States Government enacted in the 1950s.We are allowed free reign and relative safety in exchange for behaving as upstanding citizens of our union.If ever we undo these actions, then we threaten the free life and will of our peoples as a whole.Anyone who flaunts or violates these laws is at risk of destroying our entire community.As such.Stacey Adams, and Nagisa of the Crimson Suns.I charge that your actions during this last debacle, in which Chicago was overtaken by the dread Necromancer William Corcoran, threatened to expose our existence as ‘Others’ to the general public and therefore threatened our livelihood.To that end.We have collected a timeline of events in question linking Stacey to William Corcoran, evidence that she willingly participated in and assisted him in his distribution of food products tainted with dark magic, and that she willingly did so to ensure that her career would be enhanced.”
I slammed the pew in front of me and got to my feet.
